FLEMING ISLAND – The Clay County School District has secured its second-highest graduation rate in its history, 92.7%, besting the state average by 2.6 percentage points.

Overall, Clay County ranked 14th out of the state’s 67 school districts.

There’s a lot to be proud of, Superintendent David Broskie told Clay County School district board members at last week’s meeting. The district surpassed state averages for subgroups such as African-American, Hispanic or low socioeconomic students, as well as English language learners and students with disabilities.

“I think the subgroups are a particularly impressive data point,” Broskie added.

The three highest graduation rates among county schools are Fleming Island High with 99.1%, Ridgeview High with 97.8% and Oakleaf High with 97.4%. Orange Park High and Clay High secured a 95.4% and 94.9% graduation rate, respectively, while Middleburg High, 92.3% and Keystone Heights Junior-Senior Highs, 86.7%, rounded out the district.

The graduation rate of 92.7% is a slight dip from the district’s highest-ever total, which was 93.4% graduation rate recorded last year. However, the district has steadily improved over the past several years after an 83.7% graduation rate posted for the 2014-2015 school year and 74.4% graduation rate for the 2010-2011 school year.

“Given all the things that have happened over the past two years and where we’re at, I’m pretty darn proud of our district and how we’ve done with our graduation rate,” Broskie said.

In other business, board members welcomed back teachers and staff for the second semester by approving amendments to its contracts with teachers and staff.

Clay County Education Association President Vicki Kidwell said the union encouraged the ratification of $8.8 million for teacher pay from the district and the American Rescue Plan Act, later approved by board members 5-0, to get teacher salaries to $47,500 and give bonuses to veteran teachers. For staff, the salary increase is an estimated $5.9 million between the district and ARPA.

Kidwell said teacher shortages harmed students and the district has had 86 teacher positions vacated from August to December.

“The reality of that is, that’s 506 years of experience lost in Clay County,” Kidwell said. Toward the end of the meeting, Board Member Beth Clark said teachers have been overburdened and she wished teachers could make more money.

“We’ve got a long way to go, unfortunately, we’re short in every industry, cosmetology to contracting,” Clark said. “It’s a problem just getting help to get our schools maintained and built on time. We’re just going to have to be patient and push ahead as much as we can.”